Rosa May Billnghurst was an active suffragette and campaigner. Unable to walk, having contracted polio in childhood, she used a tricycle and leg irons. Both she and the police exploited her disability. She’d hide stones in her tricycle on window smashing campaigns, and she’d ram raid officers with her wheels and crutches during protests. The police callously tipped her out of her tricycle and let down its tyres on one occasion, leaving her stranded in the street. She spent time in Holloway Prison, was sentenced to hard labour and went on hunger strike, which resulted in force feeding and such poor health that she was promptly released.

Black cotton embroidered on fluorescent yellow flock.